With AmyJo's build now long complete and one of us into retirement. Chris I now look forward to cruising the network further afield now time allows
Our blog is a diary for our friends and family to follow our adventures and, of course, you are welcome to join us as well.

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Wednesday, 31 October 2012

I'm a bit of a gadget man if I were to admit it. I have an android phone and can receive all my emails on it.I was somewhat surprised then when I received an email from Julia at Ferwoods addressed to Chris. In the email Julia informed Chris that Jim was shipping the boat in his shed next Wednesday and AmyJo's build will start immediately after that.Naturally I replied with many thanks and so on then re-read the email. I was still not sure I'd read correctly. It was then I discovered as I scrolled down that Chris has used my laptop to send Julia an email and in so doing had sent it using my account.

Tuesday, 30 October 2012

On Friday we took the trip to Gloucestershire and visited the Beta Marine factory. There we were met by Andrew Winton who talked us through the various options that we could go for on our Beta 50. After that he gave us a tour of the workshop floor

The Factory

The delivery area

The engine blocks are shipped in from Japan made to Beta's specifications.

The basic block

They are then prepared for addition of the parts to the customer's specification. In some cases they are prepared in a silencing cocoon before shipping out.

Sunday, 14 October 2012

Hi All,We posted a while back that we had sorted a mooring for AmyJo and had paid a holding deposit for it. We had not realised that was a year ago until we received an email from the marina enquiring if we still wanted the mooring. Where has this year gone?Concerned I replied we did but decided we should go visit them to re-assure them we genuinely did want the mooring. Saturday morning, in lovely (rare) warm sunshine, we drove out to the marina and had a pleasant chat to Sarah who runs things there. We knew we had a mooring but not exactly which one so Sarah asked if we would like to choose one. Unfortunately all the end moorings are taken but we chose this one on the inside of an end mooring. Its a 70ft mooring so AmyJo should fit in comfortably.

Our mooring is on the right hand side

Interestingly the boat next to us used to be a restaurant boat but the couple who now own it are converting it into a live aboard. Must be lovely and bright inside with all those windows.

The view from the other end of the mooring

Whilst at the marina we also got to talk to some of the other boaters who moor there and we were please to hear they all thought highly of the place so we look forward to keeping AmyJo there. They seemed very pleasant and wished us well so I think we'll be accepted among them. We had quite a long chat with a lovely couple called Brian and Sheila. They have only just got their boat in the last week and were happy to show us around. They had yet to take the boat out on a long cruise but had taken her up the cut to the winding hole and back. Needless to say they were now totally hooked on narrow boating.That's all the news we have for now so as dinner is on the table I'll say TTFN.

Saturday, 13 October 2012

Hi allNot a great deal to report at the moment except Chris's mum Mary is doing well and is making steady progress. Her short leg, as she calls it now, is healing well and the hospital are even talking about discharging her. She has to be assessed for dementia before then and will need 24/7 home care but things are looking much better for now so that is a bit of a relief. The only other bits of news I have are, I'm another year older today, and we've booked a visit to Beta Marine on 26th, Friday next week. We're having a beta 50 like the one below fitted in AmyJo so thought it might be nice to see where its going to be made.

I spoke with the CEO, Andrew, and will spend some time having a look around the factory. Then its off to Essex to see Mary and the rest of the family for the weekend.

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

that you should be doing something but are not sure what.I like reading narrow boat blogs and in particular boat build blogs. When reading these I like to see how people overcome issues during their build and love reading about their innovative ideas and solutions. I don't wish to copy every ones ideas mind but now and then I get some good pointers towards what I would like to include in AmyJo. One thing is clear is that there is an awful lot of research going on for items to go into such builds and I sometimes think I should perhaps be doing the same, however, to be honest we have no clue where to start at the moment. There will be such a lot to be sorted out but what, and when should we sort it. Am I worrying too much or should we just go with the flow when the build starts? I admit I'm looking forward to that part immensely when it does happen. I guess I'm a bit like a kid waiting for Christmas. I know I need presents but don't know what those presents should be and that's where the fun part comes in.